{"id":6184,"date":"2024-01-26T13:57:18","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T11:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/?p=6184"},"modified":"2024-09-12T14:28:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T12:28:47","slug":"imigrantet-mund-te-ndihmojne-ne-zbutjen-e-krizes-demografike-te-kosoves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/opinion\/imigrantet-mund-te-ndihmojne-ne-zbutjen-e-krizes-demografike-te-kosoves\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigrants Can Help Mitigate Kosovo\u2019s Demographic Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Over the past two decades, countries in the Western Balkans have lost a significant percentage of their populations and the region is now experiencing a demographic crisis. Kosovo is not exempt from this phenomenon, experiencing a substantial depopulation. Between 2012 and 2022,\u00a0338,000 Kosovars have emigrated.<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The situation is poised to escalate further with the onset of visa liberalization in January 2024. A recent survey highlights that more than\u00a028% of Kosovars<\/a>\u00a0want to emigrate from the country. The effects of this emigration are already evident, with the ubiquity of help wanted signs in many small shops and companies.<\/p>\n

Kosovo faces an additional demographic dilemma marked by a shrinking and aging population. According to the Kosovo Agency of Statistics (ASK) in 2019, it was estimated to fall to 1.49 million by 2061. This means that the population may be falling much faster than expected.<\/p>\n

Many factors are in play here, with the economy being the most obvious. Kosovo\u00a0has one of the lowest GDPs in Europe<\/a>\u00a0and the post-pandemic inflation has led to a sharp increase in prices.<\/p>\n

Kosovo will soon face a choice: Slowly wither away from a lack of local talent or try and attract immigrants.<\/p>\n

There are alternative measures to address this issue, including raising salaries and creating more equitable working conditions to keep people in Kosovo and attract the diaspora to return.<\/p>\n

However, the most immediate and impactful solution is increased immigration, a trend already unfolding across the region. Countries like Albania<\/a>, Serbia<\/a> and Croatia<\/a> have begun seeking labor, reaching as far away as Bangladesh<\/a> in some cases.<\/p>\n

At present, Kosovo has extremely low foreign immigration, with\u00a0just under 3,000 people<\/a>\u00a0immigrating for work in the previous year.<\/p>\n

Attracting more immigrants to Kosovo brings financial, social and political advantages, as well as stemming the demographic fallout. It would require the Kosovo society to adapt but it would also inspire renewal.<\/p>\n

Many immigrants have the potential to generate and invest money into the local economy and build businesses. Most immigrants possess at least a secondary school education, despite the stereotypes of most being impoverished, poorly educated and largely male.<\/p>\n

These individuals often bring valuable resources, both financial and human, as they seek opportunities for a new life.\u00a0Ukrainian immigrants<\/a>, for example, are usually well-educated women, looking for short-term financial support, jobs, schools and other services for children. But Ukranians didn\u2019t find that in Kosovo and most of them have already left because Kosovo doesn\u2019t have comprehensive integration programs.<\/p>\n

Countries in need of immigrants must focus on developing integration programs, including language courses, skills assessment, facilitating economic investment, enhancing healthcare and education services, addressing discrimination, and establishing more flexible right-to-work schemes.<\/p>\n

Albania, for instance, is already working on these issues with the large influx of Afghans who were stuck there during the exodus after the Taliban took over Afghanistan. It hadn\u2019t planned to integrate the Afghans but found itself needing schemes that included cultural integration.<\/p>\n

In order to attract immigrants and benefit its economy, Kosovo can learn from other countries in the region and develop its own integration programs.<\/p>\n

In addition to the economic benefits, the influx of migrants contributes to greater diversity in Kosovo, as individuals bring with them their unique customs, traditions, languages, and beliefs. From a societal perspective, this also fundamentally alters national identity, redefining the concept of what it means to be Kosovar.<\/p>\n

This develops a more inclusive society and helps local minorities and women by removing the assumptions of nationalism and ethnicity that naturally veer toward discrimination.<\/p>\n

Immigrants bring opportunities in a variety of ways. It\u2019s up to societies to modernize and accept them and their cultures. Sooner rather than later, Kosovo will have to make that choice too.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gjat\u00eb dy dekadave t\u00eb fundit, vendet n\u00eb Ballkanin Per\u00ebndimor kan\u00eb humbur nj\u00eb p\u00ebrqindje t\u00eb konsiderueshme t\u00eb popullsis\u00eb s\u00eb tyre dhe rajoni tani po p\u00ebrjeton nj\u00eb kriz\u00eb demografike. Kur bie fjala te ky fenomen, p\u00ebrjashtim nuk b\u00ebn as Kosova, e cila po p\u00ebrjeton nj\u00eb shpopullim t\u00eb konsideruesh\u00ebm. Nd\u00ebrmjet viteve 2012 dhe 2022,\u00a0kan\u00eb emigruar 338,000 kosovar\u00eb. Situata […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1161,1160,972,1162],"ppma_author":[27],"class_list":["post-6184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-gdp","tag-imigrimi","tag-kosove","tag-kriza-demografike"],"authors":[{"term_id":27,"user_id":17,"is_guest":0,"slug":"bronwyn-jones","display_name":"Bronwyn Jones","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/2-2.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/2-2.jpg"},"user_url":"","last_name":"Jones","first_name":"Bronwyn","description":"Bronwyn Jones is a writer, editor and media practitioner who currently is the Executive Director of New Perspektiva a media NGO that highlights the issues of majority-minority relationships in Kosovo."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7646,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6184\/revisions\/7646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6184"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbunker.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}